“We saw Annah in Taupo opening for The Little River Band and The Doobie Brothers. She and her band were great and really got people in the mood for the rest of the day. I particularly like ‘Girl in stilettos (Pohutukawa trees)’. This has a fun beat and when you see the guy live, playing it on the keyboard, he is really funny. They are all so young and he looks about 15!”

06.05.12 |Permalink|Comments Off on New Zealand Music I Like: The Wild

The Wild are an Auckland alternative hip-hop group. They have not released an album yet! But they have released an incredibly awesome single, Revolution, which may be purchased on iTunes for like, $2 or something? Small change, whatever it is. It came out last year, believe it or not, but because I am old and out-of-touch I have only just discovered it. Anyway, I have embedded the video (for there is a video) below. In fact, their Youtube channel has a lot of decent content. So subscribe to it! Okay!

Happy New Zealand Music Month, you guys! All this month there’ll be posts on the New Zealand music that we like. Comment with some of your favourites if you want to!

There are a couple of Mint Chicks albums in the YA area (Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! and Screens) and then some more in the adult area that you will have to pay $1 for, but it’s ok because they’re really good too (if I had to recommend just one it would be the EP Anti-Tiger). If you are unfamiliar with what the Mint Chicks sound like, then this will give you a good idea:

Energetic and punky.

Sadly they’ve moved on to other projects, but happily one of them is the excellent Unknown Mortal Orchestra (also in the adult colection, but so good)

11.05.11 |Permalink|Comments Off on New Zealand Music Month at Wellington City Libraries

It’s May! So once again it’s New Zealand Music Month. What’s the Library doing this year to celebrate & profile Wellington musicians? Well…

This May, Wellington libraries will turn into temporary concert venues – showcasing young local talent. Up-and-coming young artists will perform afternoon gigs at Wellington Central Library and at the Ruth Gotlieb (Kilbirnie), Newtown, Johnsonville and Karori branch libraries. These free events will take place Monday 16 to Friday 20 May.

– Kilbirnie on Monday 16 from 4 to 5pm
– Newtown on Tuesday 17 from 4 to 5pm
– Johnsonville on Wednesday 18 from 4 to 5pm
– Karori on Thursday 19 from 4 to 5pm
– Central on Friday 20 from 4 to 5pm

There will also be evening performances at ZEAL and The Jimmy Bar at the St James Theatre.

Wellington City Council is organising these live performances in partnership with Play It Strange, a trust established in 2003 to encourage young New Zealanders to develop interests and skills in songwriting and musical performance.

Other Music Month events include a series of Music Workshops.

On Monday 30 and Tuesday 31 May Toi Poneke Arts Centre will hold free workshops for independent musicians. The workshop on Monday is for musicians who want to break into the Australian market and will be full of hits and tips for people who have already crossed the Tasman.

This is followed on Tuesday with the launch of the Instrumental’s Musician’s Publicity Toolkit – with a live performance from Mara TK. The toolkit is a musician’s essential guide to self-publicity and online marketing.

A full list of events, times and venues in Wellington for New Zealand Music Month can be found on the Toi Poneke Arts Centre’s Facebook page

Further facebook details with a full list of performers after the jump

Okay, there might not be brains, but eveything else will be there. Pull a team of Glee and Zombie experts together and get ready for the Zombies Vs. Gleeks Trivia Night.

Open for teams of 13 to 18 year olds (min 2 – max 4), the Zombies Vs. Gleeks Teen Trivia Night will be at the Wellington Central Library on 27th May at 6.30pm. Registrations open soon and places will be limited so get your team ready to go and start planning your costumes.

As part of New Zealand Music Month and Youth Week we’re asking Wellington Teens, in particular the readers of this blog, to re-imagine any YA book in our collection as a movie and compile the soundtrack. Hence the name O.S.T. (Original Soundtrack)

All you need to do is email us your track listing, the name of the book your movie is based on, your name and your library card number to teenblog@wcl.govt.nz, or, fill out one of the forms at the library. Easy! And you could win prizes (Music Works vouchers, CDs).

Entries close at 5pm on Monday 31st of May and you can enter as many times as you like.

*This is only part one of the O.S.T. Competition, so check back here for further information for more chances to win prizes. Prizes!

As you may well know, New Zealand Music Month is fast approaching (next month), as is Youth Week (22 – 30 May). What you don’t know, until now that is, is that the Teen Blog is going to be running an amazing, 2.0, cross-media competition to mark these dates. Also to give away some prizes we have hanging about in Teen Blog Towers. Check back here regularly for further details, and start thinking creatively!

Three new CDs this week. You know where to go if you want to hear them; the library! And as always they are free to issue on your YA cards. Aren’t we kind?

3OH!3 deal in jokey electro-crunk chock full of tongue-in-cheek gangsterisms. Their album is titled Want and if you want (my tired attempt at punnery) some silliness in your ears, they will provide.

Return Of The Mack IIserves up more classic R&B jams, in fact it says so right on the cover. Included on the 18 track comp are folks like Aaliyah, Coolio and The Fugees.

New Zealand Music Month may be drawing to a close, but there’s still time to slip a new compilation in isn’t there? There is? Oh good. Check out Ultimate Weekend Sessions, spread generously over its two discs are a whole bunch of local dub/R&B/hip hop tunes by Trinity Roots, Rhombus, Katchafire and all the other usual suspects.